The present invention relates to a locking system for mechanical joining of floorboards and floorboards having such a locking system.
The invention is particularly suited for floorboards which are based on wood material and in the normal case have a core of wood and which are intended to be mechanically joined. The following description of prior-art technique and the objects and features of the invention will therefore be directed at this field of application and, above all, rectangular parquet floors which are joined on long side as well as short side. The invention is particularly suited for floating floors, i.e. floors that can move in relation to the base. However, it should be emphasized that the invention can be used on all types of existing hard floors, such as homogeneous wooden floors, wooden floors with a lamellar core or plywood core, floors with a surface of veneer and a core of wood fiber, thin laminate floors, floors with a plastic core and the like. The invention can, of course, also be used in other types of floorboards which can be machined with cutting tools, such as subfloors of plywood or particle board. Even if it is not preferred, the floorboards can after installation be fixed to the base.
Mechanical joints have in a short time taken great market shares mainly owing to their superior laying properties, joint strength and joint quality. Even if the floor according to WO 9426999 as described in more detail below and the floor marketed under the trademark Alloc(copyright) have great advantages compared with traditional, glued floors, further improvements are, however, desirable.
Mechanical joint systems are very convenient for joining not only of laminate floors but also wooden floors and composite floors. Such floorboards may consist of a large number of different materials in the surface, core and rear side. As will be described below, these materials can also be included in the different parts of the joint system, such as strip, locking element and tongue. A solution involving an integrated strip which is formed according to, for example, WO 9426999 or WO 9747834 and which provides the horizontal joint, and also involving a tongue which provides the vertical joint, results, however, in costs in the form of material waste in connection with the forming of the mechanical joint by machining of the board material.
For optimal function, for instance a 15-mm-thick parquet floor should have a strip which is of a width which is approximately the same as the thickness of the floor, i.e. about 15 mm. With a tongue of about 3 mm, the amount of waste will be 18 mm. The floorboard has a normal width of about 200 mm. Therefore the amount of material waste will be about 9%. In general, the cost of material waste will be great if the floorboards consist of expensive materials, if they are thick or if their format is small, so that the number of running meters of joint per square meter of floor will be great.
Certainly the amount of material waste can be reduced if a strip is used which is in the form of a separately manufactured aluminum strip which is already fixed to the floorboard at the factory. Moreover, the aluminum strip can in a number of applications result in a better and also more inexpensive joint system than a strip machined and formed from the core. However, the aluminum strip is disadvantageous since the investment cost can be considerable and extensive reconstruction of the factory may be necessary to convert an existing traditional production line so that floorboards with such a mechanical joint system can be produced. An advantage of the prior-art aluminum strip is, however, that the starting format of the floorboards need not be changed.
When a strip produced by machining of the floorboard material is involved, the reverse is the case. Thus, the format of the floorboards must be adjusted so that there is enough material for forming the strip and the tongue. For laminate floors, it is often necessary to change also the width of the decorative paper used. All these adjustments and changes also require costly modifications of production equipment and great product adaptations.
In addition to the above problems relating to undesirable material waste and costs of production and product adaptation, the strip has disadvantages in the form of its being sensitive to damage during transport and installation.
To sum up, there is a great need of providing a mechanical joint at a lower production cost while at the same time the aim is to maintain the present excellent properties as regards laying, taking-up, joint quality and strength. With prior-art solutions, it is not possible to obtain a low cost without also having to lower the standards of strength and/or laying function. An object of the invention therefore is to indicate solutions which aim at reducing the cost while at the same time strength and function are retained.
The invention starts from known floorboards which have a core, a front side, a rear side and opposite joint edge portions, of which one is formed as a tongue groove defined by upper and lower lips and having a bottom end, and the other is formed as a tongue with an upwardly directed portion at its free outer end. The tongue groove has the shape of an undercut groove with an opening, an inner portion and an inner locking surface. At least parts of the lower lip are formed integrally with the core of the floorboard and the tongue has a locking surface which is designed to coact with the inner locking surface in the tongue groove of an adjoining floorboard, when two such floorboards are mechanically joined, so that their front sides are located in the same surface plane (HP) and meet at a joint plane (VP) directed perpendicular thereto. This technique is disclosed in, inter alia WO 9227721, DE-A-1211175 and JP 3169967, which will be discussed in more detail below.
Before that, however, the general technique regarding floorboards and locking systems for mechanical locking-together of floorboards will be described as a background of the present invention.
To facilitate the understanding and description of the present invention as well as the knowledge of the problems behind the invention, here follows a description of both the basic construction and the function of floorboards according to WO 9426999 and WO 9966151, with reference to FIGS. 1-10 in the accompanying drawings. In applicable parts, the following description of the prior-art technique also applies to the embodiments of the present invention as described below.
FIGS. 3a and 3b show a floorboard 1 according to WO 9426999 from above and from below, respectively. The board 1 is rectangular with an upper side 2, an underside 3, two opposite long sides with joint edge portions 4a and 4b, and two opposite short sides with joint edge portions 5a and 5b. 
The joint edge portions 4a, 4b of the long sides as well as the joint edge portions 5a, 5b of the short sides can be joined mechanically without glue in a direction D2 in FIG. 1c, so as to meet in a joint plane VP (marked in FIG. 2c) and so as to have, in their laid state, their upper sides in a common surface plane HP (marked in FIG. 2c).
In the shown embodiment, which is an example of floorboards according to WO 9426999 (FIGS. 1-3 in the accompanying drawings), the board 1 has a factory-mounted plane strip 6 which extends along the entire long side 4a and which is made of a flexible, resilient aluminum sheet. The strip 6 extends outwards beyond the joint plane VP at the joint edge portion 4a. The strip 6 can be attached mechanically according to the shown embodiment or else by glue or in some other manner. As stated in said documents, it is possible to use as material for a strip that is attached to the floorboard at the factory, also other strip materials, such as sheet of some other metal, aluminum or plastic sections. As is also stated in WO 9426999 and as described and shown in WO 9966151, the strip 6 can instead be formed integrally with the board 1, for instance by suitable machining of the core of the board 1.
The present invention is usable for floorboards where the strip or at least part thereof is integrally formed with the core, and the invention solves special problems that exist in the joining, disconnection and production of such floorboards. The core of the floorboard need not, but is preferably, made of a uniform material. The strip, however, is always integrated with the board, i.e. it should be formed on the board or be factory-mounted.
In known embodiments according to the above-mentioned WO 9426999 and WO 9966151, the width of the strip 6 can be about 30 mm and the thickness about 0.5 mm.
A similar, although shorter strip 6xe2x80x2 is arranged along one short side 5a of the board 1. The part of the strip 6 projecting beyond the joint plane VP is formed with a locking element 8 which extends along the entire strip 6. The locking element 8 has in its lower part an operative locking surface 10 facing the joint plane VP and having a height of, for instance, 0.5 mm. In laying, this locking surface 10 coacts with a locking groove 14 which is made in the underside 3 of the joint edge portion 4b of the opposite long side of an adjoining board 1xe2x80x2. The strip 6xe2x80x2 along the short side is provided with a corresponding locking element 8xe2x80x2, and the joint edge portion 5b of the opposite short side has a corresponding locking groove 14xe2x80x2. The edge of the locking grooves 14, 14xe2x80x2 facing away from the joint plane VP forms an operative locking surface 10xe2x80x2 for coaction with the operative locking surface 10 of the locking element.
For mechanical joining of long sides as well as short sides also in the vertical direction (direction D1FIG. 1c), the board 1 is also along its one long side (joint edge portion 4a) and its one short side (joint edge portion 5a) formed with a laterally open recess or tongue groove 16. This is defined upwards by an upper lip at the joint edge portion 4a, 5a and downwards by the respective strips 6, 6xe2x80x2. At the opposite edge portions 4b, 5b, there is an upper recess 18 which defines a locking tongue 20 coacting with the recess or tongue groove 16 (see FIG. 2a).
FIGS. 1a-1c show how two long sides 4a, 4b of two such boards 1, 1xe2x80x2 on a base U can be joined with each other by downward angling by pivoting about a center C close to the intersection between the surface plane HP and the joint plane VP, while the boards are held essentially in contact with each other.
FIGS. 2a-2c show how the short sides 5a, 5b of the boards 1, 1xe2x80x2 can be joined together by snap action. The long sides 4a, 4b can be joined by means of both methods, whereas the joining of the short sides 5a, 5bxe2x80x94after laying of the first row of floorboardsxe2x80x94is normally carried out merely by snap action after the long sides 4a, 4b have first been joined.
When a new board 1xe2x80x2 and a previously laid board 1 are to be joined along their long side edge portions 4a, 4b according to FIGS. 1a-1c, the long side edge portion 4b of the new board 1xe2x80x2 is pressed against the long side edge portion 4a of the previously laid board 1 according to FIG. 1a, so that the locking tongue 20 is inserted into the recess or tongue groove 16. The board 1xe2x80x2 is then angled down towards the subfloor U according to FIG. 1b. The locking tongue 20 enters completely the recess or tongue groove 16 while at the same time the locking element 8 of the strip 6 snaps into the locking groove 14. During this downward angling, the upper part 9 of the locking element 8 can be operative and perform guiding of the new board 1xe2x80x2 towards the previously laid board 1.
In their joined position according to FIG. 1c, the boards 1, 1xe2x80x2 are certainly locked in the D1 direction as well as the D2 direction along their long side edge portions 4a, 4b, but the boards 1, 1xe2x80x2 can be displaced relative to each other in the longitudinal direction of the joint along the long sides (i.e. direction D3).
FIGS. 2a-2c show how the short side edge portions 5a and 5b of the boards 1, 1xe2x80x2 can be joined mechanically in the D1 as well as the D2 direction by the new board 1xe2x80x2 being displaced essentially horizontally towards the previously laid board 1. This can in particular be carried out after the long side of the new board 1xe2x80x2 has been joined, by inward angling according to FIGS. 1a-c, with a previously laid board 1 in an adjoining row. In the first step in FIG. 2a, beveled surfaces of the recess 16 and the locking tongue 20 cooperate so that the strip 6xe2x80x2 is forced downwards as a direct consequence of the bringing-together of the short side edge portions 5a, 5b. During the final bringing-together, the strip 6xe2x80x2 snaps up when the locking element 8xe2x80x2 enters the locking groove 14xe2x80x2, so that the operative locking surfaces 10, 10xe2x80x2 on the locking element 8xe2x80x2 and in the locking groove 14xe2x80x2 engage each other.
By repeating the operations shown in FIGS. 1a-c and 2a-c, the entire floor can be laid without glue and along all joint edges. Thus, prior-art floorboards of the above type can be joined mechanically by first, as a rule, being angled downwards on the long side and by the short sides, when the long side has been locked, being snapped together by horizontal displacement of the new board 1xe2x80x2 along the long side of the previously laid board 1 (direction D3). The boards 1, 1xe2x80x2 can, without the joint being damaged, be taken up again in reverse order of laying and then be laid once more. Parts of these laying principles are applicable also in connection with the present invention.
To function optimally and to allow easy laying and taking-up again, the prior-art boards should, after being joined, along their long sides be able to take a position where there is a possibility of a minor play between the operative locking surface 10 of the locking element and the operative locking surface 10xe2x80x2 of the locking groove 14. However, no play is necessary in the actual butt joint between the boards in the joint plane VP close to the upper side of the boards (i.e. in the surface plane HP). For such a position to be taken, it may be necessary to press one board against the other. A more detailed description of this play is to be found in WO 9426999. Such a play can be in the order of 0.01-0.05 mm between the operative locking surfaces 10, 10xe2x80x2 when pressing the long sides of adjoining boards against each other. This play facilitates entering of the locking element 8 in the locking groove 14, 14xe2x80x2 and its leaving the same. As mentioned, however, no play is required in the joint between the boards, where the surface plane HP and the joint plane VP intersect at the upper side of the floorboards.
The joint system enables displacement along the joint edge in the locked position after joining of an optional side. Therefore laying can take place in many different ways which are all variants of the three basic methods:
Angling of long side and snapping in of short side.
Snapping in of long sidexe2x80x94snapping in of short side.
Angling of short side, upward angling of two boards, displacement of the new board along the short side edge of the previous board and, finally, downward angling of two boards.
The most common and safest laying method is that the long side is first angled downwards and locked against another floorboard. Subsequently, a displacement in the locked position takes place towards the short side of a third floorboard, so that the snapping-in of the short side can take place. Laying can also be made by one side, long side or short side, being snapped together with another board. Then a displacement in the locked position takes place until the other side snaps together with a third board. These two methods require snapping-in of at least one side. However, laying can also take place without snap action. The third alternative is that the short side of a first board is angled inwards first towards the short side of a second board, which is already joined on its long side with a third board. After this joining-together, the first and the second board are slightly angled upwards. The first board is displaced in the upwardly angled position along its short side until the upper joint edges of the first and the third board are in contact with each other, after which the two boards are jointly angled downwards.
The above-described floorboard and its locking system have been very successful on the market in connection with laminate floors which have a thickness of about 7 mm and an aluminum strip 6 having a thickness of about 0.6 mm. Similarly, commercial variants of the floorboards according to WO 9966151 shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b have been successful. However, it has been found that this technique is not particularly suited for floorboards that are made of wood-fiber-based material, especially massive wood material or glued laminated wood material, to form parquet floors. One reason why this known technique is not suited for this type of products is the large amount of material waste that arises owing to the machining of the edge portions to form a tongue groove having the necessary depth.
One more known design of mechanical locking systems for boards is shown in GB-A-1430429 and FIGS. 5a-5b in the accompanying drawings. This system is basically a tongue-and-groove joint which is provided with an extra holding hook on an extended lip on one side of the tongue groove and which has a corresponding holding ridge formed on the upper side of the tongue. The system requires considerable elasticity of the lip provided with the hook, and dismounting cannot take place without destroying the joint edges of the boards. A tight fit makes manufacture difficult and the geometry of the joint causes a large amount of material waste.
WO 9747834 discloses floorboards with different types of mechanical locking systems. The locking systems which are intended for locking together the long sides of the boards (FIGS. 2-4, 11 and 22-25 in the document) are designed so as to be mounted and dismounted by a connecting and angling movement, while most of those intended for locking together the short sides of the boards (FIGS. 5-10) are designed so as to be connected to each other by being translatorily pushed towards each other for connection by means of a snap lock, but these locking systems at the short sides of the boards cannot be dismounted without being destroyed or, in any case, damaged.
Some of the boards that are disclosed in WO 9747834 and that have been designed for connection and dismounting either by an angular motion or by snapping together (FIGS. 2-4 in WO 9747834 and FIGS. 14a-c in the accompanying drawings), have at their one edge a groove and a strip projecting below the groove and extending beyond a joint plane where the upper sides of two joined boards meet. The strip is designed to coact with an essentially complementarily formed portion on the opposite edge of the board, so that two similar boards can be joined. A common feature of these floorboards is that the upper side of the tongue of the boards and the corresponding upper boundary surface of the groove are plane and parallel with the upper side or surface of the floorboards. The connection of the boards to prevent them from being pulled apart transversely of the joint plane is obtained exclusively by means of locking surfaces on the one hand on the underside of the tongue and, on the other hand, on the upper side of the lower lip or strip below the groove. These locking systems also suffer from the drawback that they require a strip portion which extends beyond the joint plane, which causes material waste also within the joint edge portion where the groove is formed.
For mechanical joining of different types of boards, in particular floorboards, there are many suggestions, in which the amount of material waste is small and in which production can take place in an efficient manner also when using wood-fiber- and wood-based board materials. Thus, WO 9227721 (FIGS. 5a-b in the accompanying drawings) and JP 3169967 (FIGS. 7a-b in the accompanying drawings) disclose two types of snap joints which produce a small amount of waste but which have the drawback that they do not allow easy dismounting of the floorboards. Moreover, in these systems it is not possible to use high locking angles so as to reduce the risk of pulling apart. Also the joint geometry is disadvantageous with regard to snapping-in, which requires a considerable degree of material deformation, and with regard to manufacturing tolerances where large surface portions must be accurately adjusted to each other. These large surface portions which are in contact with each other also make a displacement of the floorboards relative to each other in the locked position difficult.
Another known system is disclosed in DE-A-1211175 and shown in FIGS. 8a-b in the accompanying drawings. This known system is suited for sports floors of plastic material and cannot be manufactured by means of large disk-shaped cutting tools for forming the sharply undercut groove. Also this known system cannot be dismounted without the material having so great elasticity that the upper and lower lips round the undercut groove can be greatly deformed while being pulled apart. This type of joint is therefore not suited for floorboards that are based on wood-fiber-based material, if high-quality joints are desired.
FR-A-2675174 discloses a mechanical joint system for ceramic tiles which have complementarily formed opposite edge portions, in which case use is made of separate spring clips which are mounted at a distance from each other and which are formed to grasp a bead on the edge portion of an adjoining tile. The joint system is not designed for dismounting by pivoting, which is obvious from FIG. 10a and, in particular, FIG. 10b in the accompanying drawings.
As is evident from that stated above, prior-art systems have both drawbacks and advantages. However, no locking system is quite suited for rational production of floorboards with a locking system which is optimal as regards production technique, waste of material, laying and taking-up function and which besides can be used for floors which are to have high quality, strength and function in their laid state.
An object of the present invention is to satisfy this need and provide such an optimal locking system for floorboards and such optimal floorboards. Another object of the invention is to provide a snap joint which can be produced in a rational manner. Further objects of the invention are evident from that stated above as well as from the following description.
A floorboard and an openable locking system therefor comprise an undercut groove on one long side of the floorboard and a projecting tongue on the opposite long side of the floorboard. The undercut groove has a corresponding upwardly directed inner locking surface at a distance from its tip. The tongue and the undercut groove are formed to be brought together by snap action. Preferred embodiments are also dismountable by an angling motion which has its center close to the intersection between the surface planes and the common joint plane of two adjoining floorboards. The undercut in the tongue groove of such a locking system can be produced by means of disk-shaped cutting tools whose rotary shafts are inclined relative to each other to form first an inner part of the undercut portion of the groove and then a locking surface positioned closer to the opening of the groove.
What characterizes the locking system, the floorboard, and the laying method according to the invention is, however, stated in the independent claims. The dependent claims define particularly preferred embodiments according to the invention. Further advantages and features of the invention are also evident from the following description.
Before specific and preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, the basic concept of the invention and the strength and function requirements will be described.
The invention is applicable to rectangular floorboards having a first pair of parallel sides and a second pair of parallel sides. With a view to simplifying the description, the first pair is below referred to as long sides and the second pair as short sides. It should, however, be pointed that the invention is also applicable to boards that can be square.
By high joint quality is meant a tight fit in the locked position between the floorboards both vertically and horizontally. It should be possible to join the floorboards without very large visible gaps or differences in level between the joint edges in the unloaded as well as in the normally loaded state. In a high-quality floor, joint gaps and differences in level should not be greater than 0.2 and 0.1 mm respectively.
In general, it should be possible to angle the long side of a floorboard upwards so that the floorboards can be released. Since the boards in the starting position are joined with tight joint edges, this upward angling must thus also be able to take place with upper joint edges in contact with each other and with rotation at the joint edge. This possibility of upward angling is very important not only when changing floorboards or moving a floor. Many floorboards are trial-laid or laid incorrectly adjacent to doors, in corners etc. during installation. It is a serious drawback if the floorboard cannot be easily released without the joint system being damaged. Nor is it always the case that a board that can be angled inwards can also be angled up again. In connection with the downward angling, a slight downwards bending of the strip usually takes place, so that the locking element is bent backwards and downwards and opens. If the joint system is not formed with suitable angles and radii, the board can after laying be locked in such manner that taking-up is not possible. The short side can, after the joint of the long side has been opened by upward angling, usually be pulled out along the joint edge, but it is advantageous if also the short side can be opened by upward angling. This is particularly advantageous when the boards are long, for instance 2.4 m, which makes pulling out of short sides difficult. The upward angling should take place with great safety without the boards getting stuck and pinching each other so as to cause a risk of the locking system being damaged.
It should possible to lock the short sides of floorboards by horizontal snapping-in. This requires that parts of the joint system be flexible and bendable. Even if inward angling of long sides is much easier and quicker than snapping-in, it is an advantage if also the long side can be snapped in, since certain laying operations, for instance round doors, require that the boards be joined horizontally. In case of a snappable joint, there is a risk of edge rising at the joint if the joint geometry is inappropriate.
If the floorboard is, for instance, 1.2*0.2 m, each square meter of floor surface will have about six times more long side joints than short side joints. A large amount of material waste and expensive joint materials are therefore of less importance on short side than on long side.
For high strength to be achieved, the locking element must as a rule have a high locking angle, so that the locking element does not snap out. The locking element must be high and wide so that it does not break when subjected to high tensile load as the floor shrinks in winter owing to the low relative humidity at this time of the year. This also applies to the material closest to the locking groove in the other board. The short side joint should have higher strength than the long side joint since the tensile load during shrinking in winter is distributed over a shorter joint length along the short side than along the long side.
It should be possible to keep the boards plane when subjected to vertical loads. Moreover, motion in the joint should be avoided since surfaces that are subjected to pressure and that move relative to each other, for instance upper joint edges, may cause creaking.
To make it possible to lock all four sides, it must be possible for a newly laid board to be displaced in the locked position along a previously laid board. This should take place using a reasonable amount of force, for instance by driving together using a block and hammer, without the joint edges being damaged and without the joint system having to be formed with visible play horizontally and vertically. Displaceability is more important on long side than on short side since the friction is there essentially greater owing to a longer joint.
It should be possible to produce the joint system rationally using large rotating cutting tools having extremely good accuracy and capacity.
A good function, production tolerance and quality require that the joint profile can be continuously measured and checked. The critical parts in a mechanical joint system should be designed in such manner that production and measurement are facilitated. It should be possible to produce them with tolerances of a few hundredths of a millimeter, and it should therefore be possible to measure them with great accuracy, for instance in a so-called profile projector. If the joint system is produced with linear cutting machining, the joint system will, except for certain production tolerances, have the same profile over the entire edge portion. Therefore the joint system can be measured with great accuracy by cutting out some samples by sawing from the floorboards and measuring them in the profile projector or a measuring microscope. Rational production, however, requires that the joint system can also be measured quickly and easily without destructive methods, for instance using gages. This is facilitated if the critical parts in the locking system are as few as possible.
For a floorboard to be manufactured optimally at a minimum cost, long and short side should be optimized in view of their different properties as stated above. For instance, the long side should be optimized for downward angling, upward angling, positioning and displaceability, while the short side should be optimized for snapping-in and high strength. An optimally designed floorboard should thus have different joint systems on long and short side.
Wood-based floorboards and floorboards in general which contain wood fiber swell and shrink as the relative humidity changes. Swelling and shrinking usually start from above, and the surface layers can therefore move to a greater extent than the core, i.e. the part of which the joint system is formed. To prevent the upper joint edges from rising or being crushed in case of a high degree of swelling, or joint gaps from arising when drying up, the joint system should be constructed so as to allow motion that compensates for swelling and shrinking.
The invention is based on a first understanding that by using suitable production methods, essentially by machining and using tools whose tool diameter significantly exceeds the thickness of the board, it is possible to form advanced shapes rationally with great accuracy of wood materials, wood-based boards and plastic materials, and that this type of machining can be made in a tongue groove at a distance from the joint plane. Thus, the shape of the joint system should be adapted to rational production which should be able to take place with very narrow tolerances. Such an adaptation, however, is not allowed to take place at the expense of other important properties of the floorboard and the locking system.
The invention is also based on a second understanding, which is based on the knowledge of the requirements that must be satisfied by a mechanical joint system for optimal function. This understanding has made it possible to satisfy these requirements in a manner that has previously not been known, viz. by a combination of a) the design of the joint system with, for instance, specific angles, radii, play, free surfaces and ratios between the different parts of the system, and b) optimal utilization of the material properties of the core or core, such as compression, elongation, bending, tensile strength and compressive strength.
The invention is further based on a third understanding that it is possible to provide a joint system at a lower production cost while at the same time function and strength can be retained or even, in some cases, be improved by a combination of manufacturing technique, joint design, choice of materials and optimization of long and short sides.
The invention is based on a fourth understanding that the joint system, the manufacturing technique and the measuring technique must be developed and adjusted so that the critical parts requiring narrow tolerances should, to the greatest possible extent, be as few as possible and also be designed so as to allow measuring and checking in continuous production.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there are thus provided a locking system and a floorboard with such a locking system for mechanical joining of all four sides of this floorboard in a first vertical direction D1, a second horizontal direction D2 and a third direction D3 perpendicular to the second horizontal direction, with corresponding sides of other floorboards with identical locking systems.
The floorboards can on two sides have a disconnectible mechanical joint system, which is of a known type and which can be laterally displaced in the locked position and locked by inward angling about joint edges or by horizontal snapping. The floorboards have, on the other two sides, a locking system according to the invention. The floorboards can also have a locking system according to the invention on all four sides.
At least two opposite sides of the floorboard thus have a joint system which is designed according to the invention and which comprises a tongue and a tongue groove defined by upper and lower lips, where the tongue in its outer and upper part has an upwardly directed part and where the tongue groove in its inner and upper part has an undercut. The upwardly directed part of the tongue and the undercut of the tongue groove in the upper lip have locking surfaces that counteract and prevent horizontal separation in a direction D2 transversely of the joint plane. The tongue and the tongue groove also have coacting supporting surfaces which prevent vertical separation in a direction D1 parallel with the joint plane. Such supporting surfaces are to be found at least in the bottom part of the tongue and on the lower lip of the tongue groove. In the upper part, the coacting locking surfaces can serve as upper supporting surfaces, but the upper lip of the tongue groove and the tongue can advantageously also have separate upper supporting surfaces. The tongue, the tongue groove, the locking element and the undercut are designed so that they can be manufactured by machining using tools which have a greater tool diameter than the thickness of the floorboard. The tongue can with its upwardly directed portion be inserted into the tongue groove and its undercut by essentially horizontal snapping-in, the lower lip being bent so that the upwardly directed portion of the tongue can be inserted into the undercut. The lower lip is shorter than the upper lip, which facilitates the possibility of forming an undercut with a locking surface which has a relatively high inclination to the surface plane of the board and which thus gives a high horizontal locking force, which can be combined with a flexible lower lip.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the floorboard has two edge portions with a joint system according to the invention, where the tongue with its upwardly directed portion both can be inserted into the tongue groove and its undercut by a snap function and can leave the tongue groove by upward angling while at the same time the boards are kept in contact with each other with their upper joint edges.
Alternatively or furthermore, the tongue can be made flexible to facilitate such snapping-in at the short side after the long sides of the floorboard have been joined. Thus, the invention also relates to a snap joint which can be released by upward angling with upper joint edges in contact with each other.
According to a third aspect of the invention, the floorboard has two edge portions with a joint system which is formed according to the invention, where the tongue, while the board is held in an upwardly angled position, can be snapped into the tongue groove and then be angled down by a pivoting motion about the upper joint edge.
The lower lip is shorter than the upper lip so as to enable greater degrees of freedom when designing the undercut of the upper lip and especially its locking surface.
A plurality of aspects of the invention are also applicable to the known systems without these aspects being combined with the preferred locking systems described here.
The invention also describes the basic principles that should be satisfied for a tongue and groove joint which is to be snapped in with a minimum bending of joint components and with the surface planes of the floorboards on essentially the same level.
The invention also describes how material properties can be used to achieve high strength and low cost in combination with snapping.
Different aspects of the invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings which show different embodiments of the invention. The parts of the inventive board that are equivalent to those of the prior-art board in FIGS. 1-2 have throughout been given the same reference numerals.